Weddingbee

That’s Mr. Daisy, right? Ok, in the realm of life, yes, he’s that. But in the realm of wedding vendors, my first, my last, my everything, my port in a storm:

My wedding planner:

I didn’t exactly choose my planner in the by-the-book order. By the time I convinced my parents that a wedding planner was something I was not going to give up without a knockdown, drag out fight a good idea, we’d already booked our venue (The Metropolitan Club) and our band (Soul Connection f/k/a White Light).

We then met with Jennifer Zabinski and I knew I wanted the Wedding Library as my wedding planners. Though I loved Jennifer, as one of the WL owners, her price reflected that, which my parents were not keen on. To be sure, at that point (January 2006), they weren’t even behind the idea of a planner at *all*, let alone paying the price of a car to hire one. Happily, the rate for a non-owner planner was more up their alley, so we signed a contract and began working with one of the other/non-owner planners there. Things were great, she totally got me, my aesthetic, my quirks–all of it. But then, in July– poof! she was gone. She left the Wedding Library and New York for a true love in Boston.

I basically freaked out at this point. I didn’t even want to really blog about it because I was too stressed. Who would pick up the slack? Who would be my daily phone call assigning me tasks; making vendor appointments for the three options that suited me, culled from a field of hundreds, according to my taste; listening to my rambling, stream-of-consciousness thought processes??

Then Jennifer (as mentioned, one of the Wedding Library owners) met with me and took over. And I think I am probably *ridiculously* lucky that my original planner left, because I ended up with the best planned, most perfect wedding I could have ever dreamt up. There were growing pains, sure. And it took a week or two for Jennifer and I to really be on the same page (I’d been working with the other planner for seven months at this point) but once we did, all bets were off and she kept the planning (and me) on point and in check.

From my invitations (which I worked on with Shana at the WL), to the out-of-town rooms, to the day-after brunch, to the reception menu (Jennifer knows food inside and out and really helped us tweak our ideas), to arranging transportation to the rehearsal dinner from the rehearsal, to arranging *all* of the guest, bridal party and after party transportation for the day of, to picking up my dress; no detail was left unchecked and I was not really overwhelmed.* Then a month or so before the wedding, Jennifer brought in Shira, who came onto the team for all the day-of scheduling and execution. Between the two of them, every single detail came into place perfectly.

• They delivered all our out-of-town gift bags.
• Got all my DIY (or BIY**) items to the Met Club.
• When the Met Club had water damage, they dealt with everything, getting Mr. Daisy and me into suites at the Pierre (not too shabby, not at *all*!)
• Dealt with the table seating issue caused by my MIA usher (as opposed to one of Mr. Daisy’s groomsmen) when he was a no-show at pictures and then bailed on the wedding.
• During the wedding, ran back to my suite at the Pierre to bring me my Lactaid (yes, lactose intolerant people of the world, rise up!)
• Got on their knees, well, Jennifer, specifically, and massaged (!) my leg when it cramped up after my first dance with Mr. Daisy.
• And dealt with and fixed about a million other issues that we never even knew about at the time and never had to worry about during the whole wedding.

Honestly, I even get teary-eyed knowing I won’t be having my daily conversations with Jennifer and Shana and Shira. I just cannot say enough about how well the wedding came off.

Here is their sweet message to me in my Polaroid guestbook (which I, appropriately enough, bought at the WL).

I really don’t think my wedding would have been half as amazing without them! Even my mom came around and said she couldn’t imagine how we would have done it without the planner. The thing is, I *know* people plan weddings all the time sans planner, and plan them beautifully. But I was able to sleep at night, go to concerts (two of them!) the week before my wedding, watch tv, basically, just live my life, because I knew that my planner had everything taken care of. And knowing myself, that is not the way it could have been had I planned this solo.

I know that there is definitely debate on whether or not planners are necessary so I would love to hear your thoughts on this. I know that this is a luxury that not every budget permits, so I welcome thoughts on the cost too:

a) I wouldn’t dream of a wedding without a wedding planner;
b) I definitely see the use of “day-of” planning, but can get up to the last month on my own;
c) It’s all me, baby

~~~

* Except by my own DIY projects. But I have to say, I would totally do all of them again–programs, out of town bags, rehearsal dinner placecards, pew cards, shower menus, et al. The little bit of a personal touch made everything just that much more special. To me, anyway!

** This is “buy-it-yourself”, which I did for napkin rings, votive holders, menus, Polaroid cameras for the guest books, and other stuff that seemed to cost about the same for rental…

• The Motherload of Coupons
• Polly Want a Wedding?